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| Sunday, 12 February 2006 |
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Junior Observer |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Preventing communicable diseases among your pets Suddenly your lovely pomeranian loses all her fur and looks like a nightmare. You want to help your pet, but your parents won't allow you to get close to your once loved friend. This disease is called mange, a rash that makes your pet lose all its fur. The truth is, if we take proper care of our pets, these innocent animals can be prevented from many such dangerous illnesses called communicable diseases. Dr. D. A. U. Samankumara, B. V. Sc of Kirindiwela Animal Clinic, today discusses the importance of preventing the spread of communicable diseases.
Communicable diseases are those that can be transmitted from one dog to another. Mange (rash), parvo, distemper, hepatitis and kennel cough are some of the common communicable diseases. Most of these diseases are fatal and can be harmful to your pet as well as your family members. Therefore, prevention of such diseases is important for the benefit of both your pet and your family. Prevention of these diseases is a simple task. If your pet is provided with healthy food, vaccine on time and is properly maintained, they will have high immunisation levels, which will easily prevent them from getting most of these illnesses. The most effective means of controlling these diseases are isolation, disinfection, immunisation and education. Isolation: By isolation, we mean the separation of the sick animal from another animal in good health, and also preventing close contact. Dogs that have been in close contact with the sick dog before the disease, need to be identified, and carefully watched for symptoms. Disinfection: This is the process of destroying pathogenic (disease-causing) micro-organisms. Micro-organisms tend to die out in an unfavourable environment such as sunlight, heat, drying and lack of moisture. In simple terms, this means killing the micro-organisms through natural ways. In this method, it is important to clean the infected animal's urine and discharge with a strong disinfectant. Do not forget to wash the area. The second method is killing germs with disinfectant. You may clean the dog, its discharge and the area with the disinfectant. Immunisation:Remember, negligence is the foremost cause for many diseases. Having all animals housed together, letting new animals in the same kennel with old pets, and not removing dog waste properly, are some of the common mistakes made by pet owners. This leads to many fatal illnesses that are harmful to you and your pet. Therefore, it is our responsibility to pay more attention to our pets. We will now discuss one of the fatal diseases. Mange (rash): Remember, we have talked about this disease earlier. Losing that shiny fur coat, itching and a strong smell, are some of the symptoms of mange. This is a serious condition, as it is highly contagious and spread through a kennel, particularly when a large number of dogs are housed together. We discussed micro-organisms. There are two types of micro-organisms. 1. Sarcoptic type 2. Dermodectic type These micro-organisms live in the epidermic lower layer in your dog's skin. When ticks and lice bite and damage the skin's upper layer, it helps micro-organisms to spread easily. Although the above symptoms vary from one dog to another, it is important to do a micro-organisms examination on a little scraping from the skin, in order to identify the disease correctly. In the Sarcoptic type, there is instant itching of the affected area. Grey patches start to appear. The skin thickens and starts having a leathery feel. In Dermodectic type, the hair follicles are destroyed, but there is not much itching. The skin is swollen and hair falls out and the skin thickens and starts giving a wrinkled effect. - CNK |
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